Roberto
Guest
Desert People to fight Sonora salt mine
Semarnat approved 66-hectare project on lands of the Tohono O'odham
50
Mexico News Daily | Monday, April 10, 2017
An indigenous community in Sonora has vowed to fight a salt mine that has been approved by the Environment Secretariat (Semarnat) on land claimed sacred by the Tohono O’odham, or Desert People.
Although the Natural Protected Areas Commission (Conanp) decided that a salt mining project in the area was not viable, Semarnat representative Gustavo Adolfo Clausen Iberri authorized the strip mining of 66 hectares last December to Jesús Pedro Villagrán Ochoa.
The area, known as La Borrascosa, is located about 240 kilometers from Mexicali on the Golfo de Santa Clara-Puerto Peñasco highway.
On April 1, mining machinery arrived without the permission of the Tohono O’odham of the ejido Vicente Guerrero in the municipality of San Luis Colorado.
“My community protects these lands, they’re part of our ancestral culture. We’re trying to keep it from invaders, that’s what happening today,” said Julián Rivas, a Tohono O’odham leader from the community of San Francisquito.
“The land is sacred, it’s part of our lives and part of a training that we follow. It’s the beginning of life for us, it’s Mother Earth, [for that reason] we’ll try to stop [the invasion],” he told the newspaper Reforma.
“. . . we don’t know who authorized [the machinery], but we’ll put a stop to it. They’re violating our customs and traditions, they cannot violate our sacred land,” agreed Manuel Eribez Rodríguez, who added that the Tohono O’odham Supreme Council will meet next month to assess the situation.
Since 1986, 34 community landowners, or ejidatarios, from Vicente Guerrero have wished to protect an 800-hectare area that surrounds the salt flats, where they have an ecotourism project, said their representative, José Luis Bolaños García.
But he said there are at least four business people interested in salt flats adjacent to La Borrascosa: “They’ve seen the value of the land; La Borrascosa is just the tip of the iceberg. They claim that this is not a cultural zone and that there’s no historical heritage here but it is a sacred place for the Tohono O’odham . . . .” he lamented.
A salt mine existed in the area 23 years ago. After it closed, Bolaños claimed, 400 tonnes of trash were left behind, which the Tohono O’odham cleaned up.
“We’ve preserved this zone, cleaning it of the pollution they left behind after they exploited the salt flats; they left behind machinery, oil, batteries, scrap metal. Now that everything’s fine they’re interested in the place again,” he said.
The Tohono O’odham lands cover parts of the states of Sonora and Arizona, taking in the natural protected areas of the Colorado River Delta and and the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Sea of Cortés.
Source: Reforma (sp)
Semarnat approved 66-hectare project on lands of the Tohono O'odham
50
Mexico News Daily | Monday, April 10, 2017
An indigenous community in Sonora has vowed to fight a salt mine that has been approved by the Environment Secretariat (Semarnat) on land claimed sacred by the Tohono O’odham, or Desert People.
Although the Natural Protected Areas Commission (Conanp) decided that a salt mining project in the area was not viable, Semarnat representative Gustavo Adolfo Clausen Iberri authorized the strip mining of 66 hectares last December to Jesús Pedro Villagrán Ochoa.
The area, known as La Borrascosa, is located about 240 kilometers from Mexicali on the Golfo de Santa Clara-Puerto Peñasco highway.
On April 1, mining machinery arrived without the permission of the Tohono O’odham of the ejido Vicente Guerrero in the municipality of San Luis Colorado.
“My community protects these lands, they’re part of our ancestral culture. We’re trying to keep it from invaders, that’s what happening today,” said Julián Rivas, a Tohono O’odham leader from the community of San Francisquito.
“The land is sacred, it’s part of our lives and part of a training that we follow. It’s the beginning of life for us, it’s Mother Earth, [for that reason] we’ll try to stop [the invasion],” he told the newspaper Reforma.
“. . . we don’t know who authorized [the machinery], but we’ll put a stop to it. They’re violating our customs and traditions, they cannot violate our sacred land,” agreed Manuel Eribez Rodríguez, who added that the Tohono O’odham Supreme Council will meet next month to assess the situation.
Since 1986, 34 community landowners, or ejidatarios, from Vicente Guerrero have wished to protect an 800-hectare area that surrounds the salt flats, where they have an ecotourism project, said their representative, José Luis Bolaños García.
But he said there are at least four business people interested in salt flats adjacent to La Borrascosa: “They’ve seen the value of the land; La Borrascosa is just the tip of the iceberg. They claim that this is not a cultural zone and that there’s no historical heritage here but it is a sacred place for the Tohono O’odham . . . .” he lamented.
A salt mine existed in the area 23 years ago. After it closed, Bolaños claimed, 400 tonnes of trash were left behind, which the Tohono O’odham cleaned up.
“We’ve preserved this zone, cleaning it of the pollution they left behind after they exploited the salt flats; they left behind machinery, oil, batteries, scrap metal. Now that everything’s fine they’re interested in the place again,” he said.
The Tohono O’odham lands cover parts of the states of Sonora and Arizona, taking in the natural protected areas of the Colorado River Delta and and the Biosphere Reserve of the Upper Sea of Cortés.
Source: Reforma (sp)
